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 The Legacy of the Fathers 
 
 Baccalaureate Address 
 
 OF 
 
 PRESIDENT HOWARD EDWARDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Rhode Island State Collejile 
 
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 EC IR IQ; 
 
THE LEGACY OF THE FATHERS 
 
 "And the cliief captain answered, 
 With a great sum obtained I this free- 
 dom. And Paul said, But I was born 
 free." Acts XXII, 28. 
 
 Thus spoke two men concerning the 
 freedom of citizenship under the Ro- 
 man empire. The soldier, to indicate 
 the value that he placed upon it, em- 
 phasizes the greatness of the sum that 
 he paid for it; the apostle, prizing the 
 privilege none the less, glories in the 
 greater claim that his fathers were 
 also free and that the precious boon 
 came to him by inheritance. He was 
 born free. Such is the attitude toward 
 Roman citizenship of men at the two 
 extremes of mental outlook and en- 
 vironment, the one by profession a sol- 
 dier, the other an apostle of Christian 
 righteousness. Now the freedom which 
 these two men so highly valued was 
 that of the Roman empire, such free- 
 dom from personal harm as might sur- 
 vive under the absolutism of an Au- 
 gustus or Tiberius Caesar, a Caligula, 
 a Claudius, or a Nero, to whose cruel- 
 ty and luxurious lust Paul later owed 
 the loss of his life. There is no com- 
 parison between tlie freedom of even 
 the noblest Roman of Paul's day and 
 that of the humblest human being in 
 this American Republic of ours. The 
 question that for many montlis has 
 been knocking upon the door of my 
 mind and calling more and more insist- 
 ently for a reply is, Do our young peo- 
 ple, especially in our colleges, begin to 
 realize the preciousness of American 
 citizenship ? Do they stand ready, if 
 necessary, to guard it with their lives? 
 
 THE PRICE OF OUR FREEDOM 
 For this freedom of ours did not come 
 by chance, and will not be perpetuated 
 by nerveless sentimentalism and care- 
 less short-sightedness. Our fathers 
 bought this freedom with a great price. 
 They bought it at Bunker Hill, at Val- 
 ley Forge, at Bennington and at York- 
 town. They paid the price of four 
 years of civil war that "this nation, 
 under God," might "have a new birth 
 of freedom and that government of the 
 
 people, by the people, and for the peo- 
 ple" might "not perish from the earth." 
 They have transmitted this freedom so 
 purchased, to us, and we can proudly 
 boast that we are born free. Shall we 
 guard and maintain it? Shall our chil- 
 dren also be born free? The answer is 
 with you, young men, in the attitude 
 you take toward national policies and 
 national duties. 
 
 No sane man desires war; no wise 
 man but would go very far to avoid its 
 unspeakable horrors. We do not need 
 to be told of them; they leap at us 
 from the pages of every newspaper we 
 take up. But likewise no sane man 
 does not recognize that great powers of 
 evil are still abroad in the world and 
 that they are restrained and can be 
 controlled only by physical force. In- 
 side the nation we call this control the 
 police force of city or of state. Out- 
 side, between nations, there exists no 
 police force, and every nation must 
 guard its own existence and keep its 
 own honor by preparedness of its own 
 force, just as the man of earlier days, 
 before efficient police control, taught 
 first of all his own hands to protect 
 his head. It is idle and worse, not to 
 face the facts of the world in which we 
 live, because we long for and labor for 
 the conditions of an ideal world which 
 does not exist, and the one ugly fact 
 that we cannot ignore is that right- 
 eousness cannot afl'ord to allow un- 
 righteousness to control and exercise 
 the physical forces of nature and of 
 man. 
 
 THE JINGO DANGER— WHERE ? 
 
 I find it, therefore, exceedingly dis- 
 turbing and alarming to read from a 
 leader of opinion, for instance, that 
 "force never settled anything." Then 
 our Revolutionary War, which settled 
 the independent status of this nation, 
 and our Civil War, which settled the 
 question of slavery and welded the con- 
 federation of states into a Union, were 
 dreadful orgies of crime, accompliS'hing 
 nothing. 
 
 Again I read, "In many of our uni- 
 versities large numbers of students 
 have sent many letters and petitions to 
 
President Wilson urging the govern- 
 ment at Washington not to allow" — 
 what? The inconceivable barbarities of 
 Belgian invasion? The drowning of 
 new hundreds of innocent women and 
 children? No, no; alas! no. Their 
 petition is simply "not to allow the 
 country to be dragged into war." 
 
 I have received lengthy warnings 
 about "militaristic jingoism" in this 
 country. Men have written me to pro- 
 test against the military drill required 
 by law in our colleges, and rarely car- 
 ried on voluntarily. No doubt you have 
 seen, as I have, severe strictures upon 
 the organization of the boy scouts. 
 Really, I am at a loss to know what it 
 all means, except that I fear that it 
 means disaster and shame to my coun- 
 try under present world conditions. 
 Where is this dreaded jingo spirit? 
 How does it express itself? The na- 
 tional army uses every inducement, yet 
 is not able to keep itself recruited up 
 anywhere near its exceedingly modest 
 legal limit; the navy is largely under- 
 manned and, in the recent manoeuvres, 
 showed itself both lacking in necessary 
 units and unable to prevent the landing 
 of any respectable force upon our 
 shores. There is not a state in the 
 Union whose volunteer forces are equal 
 in numbers or training to the demands 
 that riot and insurrection have at 
 times made upon them. Our powder 
 works have until recently fairly gone 
 into hysterics over "farming with 
 dynamite" in order to furnish a market 
 for their product. With thirty-five 
 years' experience in military schools, no 
 one knows better than I how difficult 
 it is to keep up any sort of interest 
 and discipline in the military drill. 
 Where does this dreaded jingo militar- 
 ism have its local habitation? Really, I 
 can only explain the anti-militarism of 
 some of our people by assuming that 
 they are trying to exorcise militari.sm 
 from Germany by disbanding the police 
 force in Providence. They are subdu- 
 ing castles in Spain by tilting against 
 windmills — in New England. They 
 would cause their own children to take 
 a bath every time they see a street 
 gamin with a dirty face. 
 
 THE REAL DANGER. 
 
 If this were all, it might be passed 
 over with a smile, but it is far from be- 
 ing all. The first duty which every na- 
 tion owes its people is protection 
 against outside attack, and for this 
 protection the nation must rely upon 
 the training, the valor, the willingness 
 to make necessary sacrifices that have 
 been bred into its men. Our pacificists 
 are weakening the very foundations of 
 national safety, by teaching our men 
 to eschew and despise the means of de- 
 fense. They call us to peace! peace! 
 when there is no peace, when the 
 whole earth is filled with tumult and 
 violence. They talk of a million men, 
 in case of a call for defence, rushing to 
 arms in twentj'-four hours. Where are 
 the arms tliey would rush to? Where 
 the ammunition, where the trained 
 leadership? Where the commissariat? 
 Wliere the hospital corps? What they 
 are really asking is that a mere mob 
 futilely off'er itself for sacrifice, and 
 that an organized government should 
 never be forgiven for asking. 
 
 Optimism is an excellent philosophy 
 — the right and indeed tlie only proper 
 kind of philosophy. But to refuse to 
 face facts because they are unpleasant 
 or undesired, to wave aside as phan- 
 toms things that are real and tangi- 
 ble, is not optimism, but rather either 
 folly or cov/ardice. I too am an opti- 
 mist. I hope that my house will not 
 bum; and, indeed, being a careful man, 
 I really believe that it will not burn. 
 Nevertheless, seeing that the houses of 
 others equally careful have burned and 
 do burn, I insure my house. So I hope 
 that we may not be involved in war. I 
 cannot say, at the present time, that I 
 do not believe we shall be so involved; 
 but, be that as it may, I know that 
 others equally undesirous of war and 
 equally innocent of any offence have 
 been visited with fire and sword and 
 barbarities unutterable. I know that 
 the one gre.at nation of Central Europe 
 whose lands have not been ravaged, 
 whose women and children have not 
 been ravished and tortured is the one 
 and only nation that was thoroughly 
 prepared for war. I know that, at this 
 
very time, this nation of ours, con- 
 scientiously seeking to perform all its 
 duties as a neutral to all the warring 
 nations, has been deliberately attacked 
 in the exercise of its primal rights; its 
 property has been wantonly destroyed 
 and the innocent lives of more than a 
 hundred of American men, women and 
 children have been taken. I know that, 
 from the very beginning of this war, 
 the doctrine of "frightfulness" has 
 been deliberately adopted, and utter 
 disregard of all convention or law, 
 human or divine, has been consistently 
 shown. The fire is all around our 
 house; shall we not insure now, before 
 it is too late? 
 
 THE NON-ARMAMENT PROPAGANDA. 
 
 Under the conditions now existing, it 
 is difficult to speak of the propagand- 
 ists of non-armament, of restricted 
 armament or of disarmament, with due 
 moderation. With an armed and mu- 
 tinous crew in tliis world-ship of ours, 
 it is simply madness to insist that the 
 officers throw their revolvers over- 
 board. When insurrection is raging in 
 a city, and murderous mobs are burn- 
 ing its houses, and pillaging its treas- 
 ures, we do not insist on disbanding 
 the police; on the contrary, we call on 
 the Governor to send armed troops, and 
 woe be unto us if he does not have 
 them to send. 
 
 Among these apostles of peace and 
 disarmament are some of the noblest 
 people this country has produced. In 
 the list I find the names of intimate 
 friends, some of the finest characters I 
 have ever known, yet in denouncing 
 their propaganda at this time, I am 
 profoundly convinced that I am doing 
 God and my country whatever service 
 in me lies. The time may come, and I 
 pray God it may come soon, when the 
 civilized world can organize peace and 
 control the earth with a federal police 
 system; but that time is not now, and 
 it can never come as long as a single 
 powerful nation is animated by the 
 doctrines of a Bismarck, a Moltke, and 
 a Treitsehke, and is dominated by the 
 mediaeval brain of a HohenzoUeren or 
 a HaT)sburg. 
 
 OUR DUTY UNDER A PEACE LEAGUE 
 Meanwhile, for any single nation to 
 attempt disarmament or to refuse ade- 
 quately to arm itself, is to invite dis- 
 honor, disgrace and disaster. Why not 
 face the facts fairly and fully? With 
 the present feeling in Germany, does 
 any man doubt that the one thing 
 standing between us and attack from 
 GeiTiiany is, not the rectitude of our in- 
 tentions nor the unpreparedness of our 
 army and navy; it is simply the navy 
 of England and the army of the Allies. 
 I repeat it; if we do not have war with 
 Germany, it will be simply because the 
 warring of the Allies prevents Germany 
 at this time from undertaking it. Does 
 it not seem unmanly, un-American, de- 
 spicable, to hug to ourselves the delu- 
 sion of superior virtue in not preparing 
 to do for ourselves that which we, with 
 no single word of gratitude, receive 
 through the blood and agony of men 
 whom we condemn for maintaining 
 armaments? I will go much farther. 
 The advocates of disarmament recog- 
 nize that the mere casting away of 
 arms will not suffice to keep peace on 
 the earth, that somewhere there must 
 be a force at hand to quell disorder and 
 prevent just what has happened in Bel- 
 gium and Luxembourg; and their solu- 
 tion of the problem, indeed the only 
 conceivable one, is that the other na- 
 tions should combine to quell by their 
 united force the aggression of any re- 
 calcitrant nation. Now it must be clear 
 that this plan or any plan like it de- 
 mands two things — first, the clear de- 
 termination of the fact of aggression; 
 second, in every nation a sense of re- 
 sponsibility for the crushing of aggres- 
 sion and a readiness, in the fulfilment 
 of that responsibility, to take up arms 
 for suppressing and punishing aggres- 
 sion. 
 
 The case of Belgium is a case in 
 every way adapted to test the sincer- 
 ity and logic of the disarmament ad- 
 vocate. It is made to order, so to 
 speak. Never can we hope for the 
 clearer establishment of the fact of un- 
 provoked aggression. Not only does 
 the court of the world's opinion con- 
 vict Germany of it, but she herself 
 
through her highest official admits it. 
 What, then, about national sense of re- 
 sponsibility to suppress the aggression, 
 and willingness to take up arms to 
 meet the duty? Has the disarmament 
 propagandist been urging us to take up 
 the cause of Belgium? Has he been 
 heard to insist that navy and army be 
 modernized and strengthened so that 
 we might do our fair share in sup- 
 pressing this supremely wanton law- 
 lessness? Does the ease or difficulty of 
 the task in any way affect, in his eyes, 
 the imperativeness of the duty? It is 
 despicable in the sheriff to carry out 
 the sentence of the law on a poor 
 wretch without arms and without 
 friends but to let the rich and power- 
 ful offender go free; and worse than 
 tliat, such a course renders the law it- 
 self contemptible and the sheriff's office 
 a farce. If the cry of Belgium did 
 not awaken in the pacificist the sense 
 of responsibility, it is idle to expect 
 that any future similar contingency 
 would call forth unselfish action in men 
 and in nations, whether bound in a gen- 
 eral compact or not. 
 
 ENGLAND'S ACTION 
 
 But there was one nation that did 
 hear the cry of Belgium and is now 
 battling for her redemption. Wliatever 
 may be said of England in the past, and 
 there is much in her past to condemn, 
 to me she is glorified today by the 
 purity of her cause, the clearness of her 
 vision, the greatness of her sacrifices, 
 the steadfastness of her purpose, and 
 the loyalty of her heart. I do not 
 mean for a moment to imply that Eng- 
 land was entirely altruistic in going 
 to war. But I do mean that none of 
 the causes leading to her decision was 
 unworthy or sordid, and that the one 
 cause winch united the nation and de- 
 cisively turned the scale for war was 
 Belgium's wrongs. I make no apology 
 for this digression. It is simply the 
 tribute due to a noble deed nobly done. 
 
 THE FATHERS' LEGACY. 
 
 Our fathers gave to us a legacy, not 
 only of a united nationality, but also 
 of a broad and teeming land, and a 
 theory of organized government. Of 
 
 these last two I do not deem the latter 
 less valuble than the former. 
 
 It is a wonderful land — this broad 
 belt of plain and prairie, of mountain 
 and table-land, extending from Atlantic 
 to Pacific, a land far surpassing the 
 fabled wealth of Ormus and of Ind, a 
 land of a hundred million of busy peo- 
 ple, of great cities and smiling country- 
 side, a glorious land of peace and plenty, 
 of unity and concord, of liberty, oppor- 
 tunity and intelligence. Yet beyond all 
 this is a heritage of institutions, tradi- 
 tions, human ideals far more wonderful 
 and precious. The best material things 
 of life— the air, the sunshine, the rain, 
 the blue sky and the green earth — come 
 to us so abundantly and so naturally 
 that Ave scarcely think of them as bless- 
 ings at all. Nay, we frequently grow ir- 
 ritated at their monotony of abundance, 
 and restlessly seek for change even at 
 the expense of comfort. So it seems to 
 me that we frequently comport our- 
 selves toward our institutions and tradi- 
 tions, taking them as a matter of 
 course and failing to give thanks; and 
 sometimes, alas! even doing our utmost, 
 through indifference or greed, or lust of 
 power, or fear and cowardice, to destroy 
 them. Only recently I read from a re- 
 sponsible source, with much other ma- 
 terial of the same kind, that it is far 
 from being established that republican 
 government is the ultimate form for in- 
 suring the welfare of society and pre- 
 serving the covenant ark of civilization. 
 
 Now I do not know what is in the 
 womb of time, but I do know that at 
 present there are but two essential forms 
 of government, the one autocratic, 
 claiming its power from above or from 
 conquest, and holding its will supreme, 
 and the other popular, holding its power 
 as delegated from the people, and 
 pledged to hear and heed the mandates 
 of public opinion. It matters not what 
 names and disguises a government may 
 take, the essential fact is the acknowl- 
 edged origin and source of power. Eng- 
 land, for instance, has a king, but under 
 the transparent veil of royalty and aris- 
 tocracy, the government is that of the 
 commons — representatives of the people 
 duly chosen. In fact, theoretically and 
 legally, the commons are the people and 
 
are all-powerful. On the other hand, 
 Mexico, under the form of a republic 
 wlien it had a government, was really an 
 autocracy pure and simple. 
 
 AUTOCRATIC GERMANY 
 Germany is an autocracy. Its Em- 
 peror says so, and there is no word of 
 denial from the German people. "We 
 Hohenzollerns." said he, "take our crown 
 from God alone, and to God alone we are 
 responsible in the fulfillment of duty." 
 * * * "Only one is master of this 
 country. That is I. Wlio oppose me I 
 shall crush to pieces." Says Bismarck: 
 "With us, there is no sovereign will but 
 that of the king. It is he alone who 
 wills, because he alone has the right to 
 do so." In a state so ruled it is obvious 
 that a free press and a free tribunate 
 cannot exist, and so we find in the first 
 fourteen j-ears of William the Second's 
 reign sis thousand prosecutions for lese 
 majeste, an ofi'enco the exact limits of 
 which no one knows, we find a police 
 force from wliose arbitrary control there 
 is for the people practically no appeal; 
 we find an army whose sole head is the 
 Emperor, and whose youngest lieutenant 
 takes social precedence of the wisest 
 philosopher or mere scientist; we find a 
 revolution in the atmosphere of educa- 
 tion and among the university men there 
 are now the "most loud-voiced jingos, the 
 blind admirers of unscrupulous success." 
 Along that line today is the surest road 
 to preferment. Where the whole pyra- 
 mid of society thus stands on its apex, 
 it is not surprising to find the sober and 
 veracious Munsterburg telling us that 
 "In the German view the state is not for 
 the individuals, but the individuals for 
 the state." 
 
 A GENUINE DEMOCRACY 
 
 The United States, on the other hand, 
 has the popular form of government. Our 
 fathers gave it to us. They placed the 
 pyramid upon its base. They taught us 
 that power originates among the people 
 governed, and that the governing officials 
 appointed by the people are the servants 
 of the people. They arranged a govern- 
 ment of checks and balances so designed 
 that no official might be able to usurp 
 dangerous power unto himself. We have 
 an untrammeled press, local self-govern- 
 
 ment, an independent judiciary, and full 
 and free opportunity for each citizen to 
 develop his own individuality and initia- 
 tive. With us the state exists for the 
 people. 
 
 There are those among us who are in- 
 clined to smile at the resounding phrases 
 of the Declaration of Independence, who 
 look with suspicion upon the qualifica- 
 tions of the people to rule themselves and 
 view with complacency the growing so- 
 cial stratification in our country. But, 
 nevertheless, there is none among us 
 who does not feel deep down in his soul 
 that somewhere in those stately periods 
 there lies a truth inestimably precious to 
 mankind, the secret of humanity's prog- 
 ress, and the key to human destiny. It 
 assures us of equality in delegating 
 power to our servants in office, equality 
 of privilege, responsibility and treatment 
 before the law, equality of opportunity 
 for self-development, equality of burdens 
 and duties toward society, and equality 
 of reward for whatever of success is 
 achieved. The only inequality it per- 
 mits is the inequality of that phrase of 
 divine wisdom: "He that is greatest 
 among you shall be your servant." 
 
 And in the main this attitude of ser- 
 vice has been largely characteristic of 
 our rulers; for the man who is daily 
 compelled to recognize that his power 
 is that of his office and not of himself, 
 that it is delegated to him only for a 
 certain time and for a definite purpose, 
 cannot and will not so far mistake the 
 situation as t^ assume to dispense as 
 benignant favors to his subjects the 
 duties that he owes to his fellow-citi- 
 zens. 
 
 Here, then, are the two ideals of gov- 
 ernment. In one, the individual exists 
 for the state, which is incarnated in the 
 glory and power of a Hohenzollern 
 dynasty; in the other the state exists 
 for the welfare of the individual, 
 which means for the highest develop- 
 ment and happiness of all the people. 
 Which is better, autocracy or democ- 
 racy? Which is more effective for the 
 welfare of mankind? My own convic- 
 tion is that popular government with 
 all its faults — its inefficiency, its lost 
 motion, its costliness, its failures — is 
 
infinitely preferable to even the auto- 
 cratic efficiency of Germany. For a cen- 
 tury and a quarter we have tried this 
 "mob government," as Bismarck called 
 it, and I confidently maintain that, 
 measured in terms of human happiness 
 a-^d advancement, no autocracy of 
 either the past or the present can be- 
 gin to show equal results through an 
 equal period of time. 
 
 AUTOCRACY INCOMPETENT. 
 Autocracy requires an autocrat — a 
 man, or a dynasty, or a coterie that 
 somehow is assumed as peculiarly fitted 
 to rule. Now the one uniform teaching 
 of history is that there is no dynasty 
 or arbitrarily limited or designated 
 class of men that is pre-eminently 
 fitted for the profession or trade of 
 governing. No class of men ever ex- 
 isted wise enough and morally strong 
 enough to be permanently trusted to 
 legislate for other and different classes, 
 however poor and degraded. History 
 consists of a dreary succession of_ fail- 
 ures in government, and these failures 
 are the failures of monarchism. 
 
 \Vliy, look you, we have today the 
 most gigantic collapse of civilization 
 the world has ever seen. Somebody has 
 failed and failed horribly in his func- 
 tion of governing. Who is it? Haps- 
 burg Francis Joseph, to celebrate the 
 fiftieth anniversary of his reign in Aus- 
 tria-Hungary, seizes Bosnia and Her- 
 zegovina. The Serbian race bitterly re- 
 sents this action; a plot is formed and 
 the crown prince, Hapsburg Francis 
 Ferdinand, is assassinated. Meanwhile 
 in Germany the pride and insolence of 
 Hohen^ollern William have grown until 
 he measures himself only with God. 
 For forty years the whole nation has 
 obediently passed its daily life under 
 the discipline of martial law and the 
 military camp, and has been made mad 
 with preachments about the German 
 super-man, pan-Germanism, and Macht- 
 politik. The nation, the army, the 
 navy, the airships, the submarines, all 
 are ready for the glorious adventure of 
 world- dictatorship. The slogan had long 
 before been announced in the, Emperor's 
 words, "Nothing must be done any- 
 where on the globe without the sanc- 
 
 tion of Germany's ruler." The assassi- 
 nation of one of the Lord's inchoate 
 anointed is too opportune an occasion 
 to be lost. Hohenzollern and Hapsburg 
 put their heads together. Forthwith, an 
 impossible forty-eight-hour ultimatum 
 goes to Serbia — forty-eight hours, when 
 it took President Wilson's cabinet ten 
 days merely to perfect the phrasing of 
 a note simply reiterating what had 
 been said in a previous communication! 
 Nations stood aghast at the impending 
 chaos. They pleaded for time even to 
 think. But no, for absolutism "the 
 day" had come, the hour of triumph 
 had struck. Europe resounds with the 
 tread of marching columns, the horrors 
 of Belgian invasion are upon us. For 
 the death of one princeling millions of 
 innocent men must die, womanhood 
 must be outraged, and childhood tor- 
 tured, burned, shot and drowned. The 
 cause of civilization must be set back 
 a hundred years, an unborn world must 
 groan under the burden of a colossal 
 debt, and even so the end is not yet. 
 
 This, young men, is not merely a 
 gigantic failure of absolutist govern- 
 ment; it is deliberate treason against 
 the human race. Popular government 
 or misgovernment has nothing parallel 
 to offer. Anarchy itself can only feebly 
 rival the horrors of this debacle. 
 
 And this, although the most stupen- 
 dous, is far from being an isolated ex- 
 ample of autocracy's crass incom- 
 petence to fulfill its metier of govern- 
 ing. Wars are symptomatic. They 
 mean always inefficiency or folly or 
 criminality in government somewhere. 
 Take away from human history the 
 dynastic wars and the wars of mis- 
 giiided ambition, and how many would 
 be left? The whole history of the 
 Hapsburgs is a history of dynastic 
 wars in which the interests of those 
 governed are sacrificed to the fury of 
 efforts to obtain and maintain crowns 
 for the sprigs of a family exceedingly 
 commonplace in character and attain- 
 ments. The autocracy of George IH 
 cost England her American colonies. 
 That of the Louises of France plunged 
 her people into the excesses of the 
 French Revolution. The autocracy of 
 
Xapoleon deluged Europe in blood. The 
 nascent autocracy of Southern slave- 
 holders forced on America her civil war. 
 And the record is the same every- 
 where; whenever and wherever a few 
 have obtained firm and exclusive hold 
 upon the reins of power, no matter un- 
 der what disguise of form, there al- 
 ways we find disastrous failure in the 
 functioning of government itself. 
 
 autocracy's ambition 
 German apologists for this war •will 
 tell us that the present German terri- 
 tory is not large enough for the enor- 
 mous increase of its people in num- 
 bers, that it lies in Central Europe, 
 threatened on all sides by other na- 
 tions, that all the earth is practically 
 taken up, that the German race is a 
 race of super-men whose Kultur (effi- 
 ciency) will be lost to the world unless 
 the nation can find room to develop, 
 that this war was sooner or later in- 
 evitable — in order, of course, to dis- 
 possess some other nation or nations 
 and to allow this new-born giant 
 among nations to take his "place in 
 the Sim." 
 
 So far as the "threatening ring of 
 iron" is concerned, the state of unpre- 
 paredness in England and Russia, and 
 to a considerable degree in France, 
 (well kno^^^l, be it said, to the Ger- 
 mans), clearly disproves any existing 
 danger to Germany. The threatening 
 danger was evidently in the reversed 
 direction; viz., from Germany to her 
 neighbors. Again, as to the country 
 being too small for the increase of its 
 population, the contention ignores the 
 fact that no single part of the earth is 
 closed to the German man and woman. 
 Asia, Africa, Australia, America, 
 North and South, all are absolutely 
 open to him, provided only he does not 
 come as an armed band to dispossess 
 those already here. Millions of them have 
 been welcomed here and have found 
 home, happiness and fortune among 
 us. Their welfare does not demand en- 
 largement of Hohenzollorn dominion. 
 They are not pining for the efficiency 
 of the German army service, for the 
 suppression of the right of free ex- 
 pression, for three hundred trials per 
 
 year for lese majeste. There is room 
 here for millions more, and all that we 
 shall ask in return for giving them the 
 heartiest welcome and exactly equal 
 privileges Avith ourselves is that they 
 will leave the Kaiser and Kaiserism at 
 home behind them. 
 
 When, therefore, we hear about com- 
 pression and the consequent inevitabil- 
 ity of a war for expansion, we ask, 
 expansion of what? and the only logi- 
 cal answer is, the expansion of an im- 
 perial government, of the glory of a 
 dynasty, of the range of one man's am- 
 bition. "The people exist for the state 
 and the state is I, William Hohenzol- 
 lern." 
 
 THE IMMEDIATE DANGER 
 
 It is this ruthless spirit of Macht- 
 politik, the right of might, that the 
 Allies are warring against today. It 
 is this spirit that has unified against 
 Germany the solid opinion of all far- 
 seeing Americans who value the 
 heritage their fathers bought with un- 
 flinching courage on the battlefield. 
 Think of it! It is the spirit that laid 
 waste the cathedrals of innocent Bel- 
 gium and extorted heavy indemnities 
 from her starving people, that in order 
 to simply terrorize drowned the inno- 
 cent children on a Lusitania — it is this 
 spirit that Mr. Bryan would meet with 
 a year of senile discussion and a power- 
 less Hague Convention at the end. It 
 is this spirit that the pacifists are aid- 
 ing and abetting with their non-arma- 
 ment propaganda among our school- 
 children and our college boys! How 
 the powers of Hell must rejoice over 
 the blindness of good and honest men! 
 
 Do we say to ourselves in the face 
 of this spirit, "A thousand shall fall at 
 our side and ten thousand at our right 
 hand, but it shall not come nigh us?" 
 Why? Is not England its greatest foe, 
 and are not our fields and factories 
 England's one source of supply? Has 
 not Germany used every means short 
 of physical attack to have us place an 
 embargo on shipments of ammunition 
 and supplies? Is it not openly com- 
 plained that, by stopping supplies, we 
 could end the war in three weeks? I 
 cannot for a moment believe that, at 
 
Germany's ibehest, we will cravenly 
 break a fundamental requirement of 
 neutrality, basely betray the Allies into 
 the hands of their enemies, and by 
 closing our markets, not merely end 
 the war, but decide it, and in favor of 
 Germany. In the effort, therefore, to 
 preserve our honor and good faith, we 
 are incurring the bitter anger of Ber- 
 lin; and haughty Berlin's anger means 
 war, unless under the stress of present 
 conditions on her battle lines she shall 
 find her advantage in temporizing with 
 us and speaking us fair. 
 
 There are not wanting other occa- 
 sions for German antagonism. Our 
 Monroe Doctrine is one of the foremost. 
 Bismarck called it "a species of arro- 
 gance peculiarly American and entire- 
 ly inexcusable." There is no doubt in 
 my mind that Germany will one day 
 call upon us to repudiate it or to take 
 measures, in concurrence with the 
 South American nations, to defend it. 
 Germany fiercely resented our taking 
 the Philippines over. Dewey tells us 
 that, seventeen years ago in the block- 
 ade of Manila, the Germans assembled 
 in the bay a stronger fleet than his 
 own; that Von Diederich and his offi- 
 cers were discourteous and offensive to 
 the last degree; and that, finally, a 
 cruiser deliberately landed provisions. 
 Then, just as Wilson is doing today, 
 the American Admiral submitted an ul- 
 timatum. He sent his flag-lieutenant 
 to Von Diederich with his compliments 
 and the message that, if he wanted a 
 fight, he could have it right now. The 
 action of landing provisions was 
 promptly disavowed and not repeated. 
 Even then, however, in the final action 
 to take Manila, Von Diederich moved 
 his ships into a threatening position 
 against Dewey. Then occurred a sig- 
 nificant thing. The British senior cap- 
 tain Chichester ranged his British ships 
 between those of Von Diederich and 
 Dewey's fleet. There is more, but I 
 have not time to tell it now. And yet 
 the poseur Bryan talks about our 
 "memories of an historic friendship 
 with Germany!" 
 
 THE CONCLUSION 
 
 What does it all mean? It means 
 
 the same old story of autocratic in- 
 efliciency and unwisdom in government. 
 It means the inevitable antagonism of 
 Divine-right dynasties toward govern- 
 ment from and of the people. It 
 means the need of wise organization 
 like that of the Swiss to meet an at- 
 tack that will some day surely come. 
 It means that the realities of life are 
 stern and harsh, and that duty must 
 be met, not by Utopian dreams of ease 
 and happiness, but by courage and wis- 
 dom, steadiness of purpose and sacri- 
 fice even unto death. 
 
 Other than the direct relation of hu- 
 manity with the Divine, I know of 
 nothing more sacred than true patriot- 
 ism. And so, on this quiet Sunday 
 afternoon, as I stand before you for 
 the last time as instructor and guide, I 
 have thought it best under the condi- 
 tions that face us once again to dis- 
 cuss with you your country's needs. You 
 have been trained as scientists and work- 
 ers. You have also learned the privileges 
 and duties of citizenship. You go out 
 tomorrow from our halls into the ser- 
 vice of the Republic. As you pass out 
 with the stamp of approval from your 
 college, let her last word to you be a 
 clarion summons to wisdom, loyalty 
 and "the last full measure of devotion" 
 to your country. 
 
 "You whom the fathers made free and 
 defended 
 Stain not the scroll that emblazons 
 their fame; 
 You whose fair heritage spotless de- 
 scended 
 Leave not your children a birthright of 
 shame"! 
 
 —Holmes. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 Time. Print, Wakefield. R. I. 
 
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